Why did BBC chiefs rob Harold Wilson of his pipe? Questions asked as former PM's smoking is played down in new documentary

Former Prime Minister Harold Wilson famously took great pleasure in smoking a pipe.

But the BBC has apparently decided to downplay Mr Wilson’s pipe smoking in a five-hour television programme, prompting criticisms of ‘politically correct censorship’.

The broadcaster will screen a celebratory programme on Thursday night to mark the 50th anniversary of Mr Wilson becoming Labour leader.

Happiest with his pipe: Harold Wilson, former Prime Minister, lights up in 1975

The late Labour leader was rarely seen in public without his trademark pipe in hand, which, together with his Gannex mac, was a key part of his image as a man of the people.

Lord Donoughue, a former aide of the Prime Minister, has claimed that producers were told to ‘censor out’ Mr Wilson’s pipe smoking.

He said he was specifically told by the programme producer that the show would avoid depicting him with his pipe.

Accusing the BBC of ‘Stalinism’, he said: ‘Is the licence payer’s money being paid for these people?

‘It is censorship – politically correct censorship.

‘How many people do they have monitoring politically correct behaviour?’

Lord Donoughue, 80, who has been invited to participate in a panel discussion about Mr Wilson tomorrow night, told the Daily Telegraph: ‘I told him that Harold always smoked a pipe on public, on platforms, on Any Questions, if he was appearing in public, that was his father figure image.’

Mr Wilson, who served two terms as Prime Minister from 1964 to 1970 and then 1974 to 1976, was voted Pipe Smoker of the Year in 1965 by the British Pipesmokers’ Council.

Producers 'censored out' Harold Wilson's famous habit

But he commonly faced accusations that his pipe smoking was just a prop.

When he was asked a difficult question he would slowly pack it with tobacco and take out his lighter, before puffing leisurely and giving his answer.

Lord Donoughue, a senior aide to Mr Wilson between 1974 and 1976, conceded that Mr Wilson was not a natural pipe smoker.

He said: ‘He didn’t smoke it much in private. It was not always lit because he had to put it away in his pocket.

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‘If he was being interviewed or questioned, the moment he was asked a difficult question he would take out his lighter and light the pipe to give him time to think of an answer.’

The Labour leader shared his pipe habit with fellow Labour politician Neil Kinnock - who was famously ordered to give up cigarettes by wife Glenys and took up a pipe instead.

Mr Wilson, who later became Lord Wilson of Rievaulx, is not the only figure to be subject to apparent attempts to airbrush his smoking out of history.

In 2010 an iconic photograph of Winston Churchill was shown at a London museum - missing the familiar cigar clenched between his teeth in the original.

Iconic: Harold Wilson with his pipe in 1966

When challenged over the image, shown on a massive poster in front of The Winston Churchill’s Britain At War Experience in south east London, organisers said they had no idea who had doctored the image.

Engineer Isambard Kingdom Brunel has also fallen victim to such meddling. An often-reproduced 1857 image shows him smoking a cigar, but it was removed from a copy on the front of a school textbook to ‘avoid offence’.

Howard Wilson Night, to be broadcast from 6pm on BBC Parliament on Thursday, will assess the late politicians ‘achievements and legacy in British politics’.

A BBC spokesman said: ‘BBC Parliament has not cut any scenes from the historical archive footage.’